Car Manufacturers Phasing Out Radio Choice

Car manufacturers are slowly removing radio signals from their cars as consumer preferences switch to streaming platforms. Joining us to discuss the entertainment in your car is Lauren Bixs, automotive journalist with Car Coach Reports. Lauren, it's good to see you. Thanks for joining us. So, forever the radio was the central entertainment function in the car, though the manufacturers now are kind of changing what they're offering to customers. what's happening there in the car uh in the in the dashboard with the car. >> Put it this way, it's always something financial. Just follow the money. And that's exactly what the plan is. So, initially it was to remove AM radio and they said, "Oh, it's because electric vehicles can't handle the AM radio signal, which is absolutely untrue." Going all the way back to the 50s. Chrysler first started putting in something. It was a electronic fuel injection. It was very new for the time in the ' 50s. and they drove by the local AM radio station because that's all there was and they had interference and that interference was then insulated and that insulation is still used that styling today. So, we know it can be insulated. Now, they're saying that has to do with electric cars. That's really not the truth. The truth of it is is that they're removing AM radio and now they're talking about removing FM radio. And some brands are even removing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they want you to use their interface because they lost so much money in the electric cars that they were selling. And some brands like Ford is probably the biggest example of losing $44,000 in each truck they sold. They had to make up the difference somehow. So they tried subscription fees like heated seats. You want your heated seats to work? there's a fee for, oh, you want the navigation, there's a fee for that. Well, obviously consumers didn't like that. So, what they're doing now is they started removing AM radio. It was huge push back with Ford and they did a software download and now you have AM radio back. But some brands have said, well, why have AM or FM? Like General Motors is talking about removing Apple CarPlay as well and using only their Googlebased system because they have to pay Apple and they have to pay for uh any other things that are on that home screen. So when you go into your home screen on your center screen, you see all these great apps or Sirius [snorts] XM, you have to pay for that, right? It's not free. So even Sirius charges and they've gotten very expensive as well. When you start looking at this, they realize AM and FM is free. You'll use that instead of listening to our our system. So now that across the House and the and the Senate, we have passed the AM for all cars act. It is sitting in the House on the schedule. This has been going on for years. I've been helping fight this. We've got it all the way down to on the schedule, but not scheduled. And we need to push this over the line before car brands are doing this for their bottom line. We as consumers want to listen to local news, talk, weather, your kids sports games, and emergency broadcast signals. Now, this the manufacturer say, "Well, you can just use your phone." But if you've ever listened to any app on your phone and you have less than two bars of service, you can't hear it. It jumps in and out. It doesn't work. It's frustrating. And and so because of that, it sounds like it's a great solution. But most of us don't live in areas where we have 100% five bars of cell phone signal. So this is going to be a problem because, and I'm perfect example, and Canada's in on this as well. If you live in the northern part of Canada, you live up in Montana or anywhere in this country where there's not a lot of signal. FM is a is a linear signal. In other words, if I'm in line with the station's antenna, I'll hear it. AM is a bouncing signal. So that I live in Buffalo. I could hear Cleveland radio. I wouldn't be able to get that on FM, but the signal sometimes will pick up and I'll pick up stuff into Canada. If there's an emergency broadcast, I won't hear it. I'd hear it if I was watching NTD, but I probably wouldn't get it on my radio in my car. And that's where it gets to be serious. And that's why we have to pass this act. And a lot of people are upset about it. >> Got it. Maybe you can go a little a level deeper on that because uh candidly, whether I'm on a plane, I'm in the car, I'm at home, I don't use anything analog. And look, I get it. you know, the two-way signal gives my data to the provider and they use that to monetize. But look, it's a thin margin world out there. And if you're telling me, you [clears throat] know, I can get a TV for a little bit cheaper if I'm willing to opt in for data, well, that's a a consumer choice that I can make. So, you know, but you're saying that there's an actual emergency need to keeping radio in the cars and you know, obviously that's a different discussion alto together. So maybe you can explore why that's important. >> Okay. And for example, there's a tornado in your area, you're going to get that emergency broadcast, a a blizzard. We get those a lot here. Um there's an emergency situation. Even the amber alerts, uh the silver alerts, you know, if people are lost or children are missing, all of that goes through AM radio. So it's super important that AM radio remain in place. Besides the fact the jobs and the communication, there's also some little political aspect we're hearing in that because a lot of conservative talk goes through AM radio. Of course, depending upon where you stand, you may not want people to hear that. And a lot of politicians love AM and FM radio because that's how they reach all of their potential constituents. If you're running for office, you need as many ears and as many eyes as possible. So, local TV, local radio is a very important aspect. But the truth of it is that emergency broadcast signal only works through AM signals. Yeah, they could convert it to a digital signal, but that doesn't mean you'll get it. And many times, you know, people don't use their phones in their car, which is not a good thing to do. I mean, you can use your Bluetooth, but the fact is you won't get that emergency broadcast of, hey, there's a tornado you're driving into. There's a blizzard. There's an emergency of some type. Um, thankfully, we don't have anything worse, but if there was something horrifying, like example 9/11. Um, I was in Jersey City when that happened and all all the AM radio signals were going off in the cars, everything through your phones and all of that goes through AM signals. >> Very interesting. So, in in in light of the fact that almost nobody uses the radio anymore, do we need to do some kind of training? Anybody under, you know, a certain age maybe will say, do do you do we need to like train people for what to do in the event of emergency so they actually know how to use the radio? because candidly I don't know the last time I turned the radio on. >> I I think when people use the radios when traffic's really bad uh or they want to listen to local sports uh you know we have the Buffalo Bills here whenever there's a game if if it's a blacked out game because they didn't sell out for whatever reason you need AM radio you're not going to hear it and for those of us sports fans that's important. I have friends that listen to soap operas from other countries that are on there. So it it depends what you want to listen to. But when things get really bad, people tend to lean toward the look on, you know, X or they'll look on social media, but if you want a constant feed of what's going on in your local area, you need AM radio. That's where people go. That's very common here in this area, no matter what age you are. It's the first thing they do. Things are bad, they go to AM radio, and they're well aware of that. Um, but the the key to it is it truly is not something to do with electric cars. It truly is about the bottom line. If something is free and provided by the government, the access to the FCC signals and that's taken away, that means you have to buy use of that app, whether it be Sirius XM, which is very expensive, or it's Google, which I don't use any of their products, but if you have Alexa and any of that, or if you've got an Android phone, you they're going to start charging you, and I'm on an Apple device, but if they're going to start charging you to use these services because in the past, the car brands would pay for the software for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. And so now they want you to use everything Google or Alexa based, which is great, but if you don't own it, cuz I don't even use Google Maps, that's when they say, "Well, we'll just charge you a minimal fee." And those minimal fees also include access to your data. So if you're looking to disconnect from the digital world, it's almost impossible these days, but it can be done. But the key is if you want to listen to what's local and AM and FM, by the way, do simal cast in many cases. I have a radio show called The Drives with Lauren and Carl, and it's coast to coast. We have a 100 stations and there's no other syndicated automotive radio show that's out there and because people are actually engaging. They want to be able to talk, feel like they're communicating, which you don't get that when you're listening to an app. >> Very important topic. Wasn't aware that of that central role in the emergency services place. While we have you Lauren, just as we finish up, love to get your sense of the flip side of this. What does the entertainment center look like with the manufacturers having such a central position to control? But of course, consumers could always just buy a different car. Um, is that becoming something that consumers are using as a point of evaluation criteria? >> Absolutely. I review a lot of cars on my car smarts channel and one of the things that we get a lot is there's no AM radio and I'll call it out. There's no AM radio on this car. Uh, many brands such as Ford and Stalantis have put it back in. Uh, Volvo removed it and they are putting them back in. All this can be done through software downloads. You you'll be sleeping at night. you'll get an update on your on your car. Uh, and that'll all happen during the evening or when you're driving. It'll just do the software update. So, it can be reinstalled. It's a matter of if they want to, but I have noticed that a lot of brands such as Toyota and Honda are putting it in. And they make a point of telling you, "We have AM, FM, satellite radio, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, it's standard. It's included because they know consumers want choices." And it depends who's driving the car. And if it causes them not to buy your brand and look at another brand, well, if I were them, I would definitely put it back in. >> Well, there you go. Make sure you have an emergency plan both for your home and your car. And make sure you know how your AM radio works. Appreciate you filling us in, Lauren Fix. Good to see you. >> Good to see you.